Four UMBC Basketball Players Among Nominees for America East Fans’ Choice Player of the Year

CAMBRIDGE, Mass—Voting for 2010 America
East Men’s and Women’s Basketball Fans’ Choice
Player of the Year has opened at AmericaEast.com, and four
Retrievers are among the 32 nominees. Sophomore
guards Chauncey
Gilliam (Columbia,Md./Brewster Academy)
and Chris De La Rosa (Washington
Heights, N.Y./All Hallows/Siena) represent UMBC on the men’s
ballot, while senior guard Carlee
Cassidy (Syracuse, N.Y./Westhill) and sophomore
center Topé
Obajolu (Randallstown, Md./Archbishop Carroll) are
the Retrievers on the women’s
ballot.

Gilliam leads UMBC in scoring with 13.3 points per game and is
currently sixth in the America East Conference with 15.2 ppg in
league contests. He has scored in double figures in 10 consecutive
games, and he has tallied 20 or more points five times this year,
including a career-high 26 pin UMBC’s win
at Hartford on Feb. 11.

De La Rose leads the America East this season with 5.1 assists
per game, and he is second in assist-to-turnover ratio. His 136
assists to date are the 10th-most in school history for a single
season. The transfer from Siena is also averaging 11.5
points per game and has averaged 17.8 ppg in UMBC’s last five
contests.

A two-time America East All-Conference selection, Cassidy is
UMBC’s all-time leader in 3-pointers with 239, the third-most
in America East history, and her 1,564 career points rank second
all-time at UMBC and 24th in the conference. This season, she is
averaging a team-best 12.9 points per game to go along with 4.3
rebounds and 2.1 assists per contest.

Obajolu has broken out since America East play began in January.
In 13 league games, she is averaging 11.2 ppg – the
second-best mark on the team – and shooting a team-best 47.1
percent from the floor, ranking sixth in the America East. She also
leads the league with 2.3 blocks per game during that span. Obajolu
is averaging 8.2 ppg on the season.

Voting for the America East Men’s and Women’s
Basketball Fans’ Choice Player of the Year runs through
Wednesday, Feb. 24, at 12 p.m. for the men and Thursday, Feb. 25,
at 12 p.m. for the women. Five finalists will be named to the final
ballot of voting, which will close on Monday, March 1, for the men
and Tuesday, March 2, for the women. The men’s winner will be
announced via AmericaEast.com on Tuesday, March 2, while the
women’s winner will be announced in the same manner on
Wednesday, March 3.